TRENZ 2014 international media still buzzing

New Zealand's biggest annual international tourism event, TRENZ 2014, may have wrapped for another year, but the international media coverage continues on.

TRENZ 2014, Murray Lloyd

Over 260 international buyers and 26 international travel media travelled to New Zealand in May for the top travel trade event, which is supported each year by Tourism New Zealand (TNZ).

Twenty six international media were hosted by TNZ, including key media representatives from Brazil, Mexico, USA, France, Germany, UK, Australia, India, Korea, Japan, China and South East Asia.

More than 80 per cent joined one of three of TNZ's post-famils, experiencing an introduction to New Zealand in Waikato and Rotorua, a focus on special interest in Marlborough, or a focus on premium in Queenstown.

The overwhelmingly positive feedback included Ryan Rudnansky, from Travailliance USA, who said, "I'd always wanted to travel to New Zealand, and the whole visit not only reached my expectations, but also went beyond them."

Renee Zhang, from Travel Link Daily, China, added, "The scenery, clean environment, safety and silence are totally another experience to those people living in big cities like us."

Among the media coverage released to date is a feature by India's Express World Travel magazine in July, which said TRENZ 2014 "brought into focus New Zealand's unique offerings, blending the established along with the new, the famous along with the unexplored."

The magazine also notes that "New Zealand as a destination has surely come of age and clubbing it with its counterpart Down Under may not be the most desired combination anymore."

See a small snapshot of TRENZ 2014's international coverage below:

Tour de Monde, Korea (circ 55,000) - a 36 page feature focusing on food and wine in Auckland and Queenstown.